Unit 1

LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this unit, you are supposed to grasp the author’s purpose of writing and make clear the structure of the whole passage through an intensive reading of Text 1 Never Say Goodbye. comprehend the topic sentences in Text 1 thoroughly and be able to paraphrase them. get a list of new words and structures and use them freely in conversation and writing. be aware of the cross-cultural differences in the social behavior of Giving Gifts.

Text 1. Never Say Goodbye Have your family ever moved from one place to another? If you have, how did you feel when you were going to be away from the old house for good? Have you ever attended a funeral of some one you know very well? If you have, what were you thinking when you saw him for the last time?

The passage can be divided into three parts. Part One: (Paragraphs 1-4) bringing up the problem the author was confronted with: it is hard to overcome the sadness as the moment of parting drew near. So he turned to his grandpa for help. Para. 1: beginning of the story ---introducing the background Para. 2-4: the author learned from his grandfather the implication of GOODBYE

Part Two: (Paragraphs 5-13) By narrating his sad experience of the loss of his eldest son during the war, the grandpa illustrates how one can overcome the sad feeling resulting from the loss of someone dear to him by recalling not the moment of parting but the happy times spent together. Para. 5-9: the grandpa’s intention of saying “it isn’t just the roses that are beautiful; it is that special place in your heart that makes them so.” Para 10-13: The telling of the story related to the rosebush. The message of the text is conveyed in Para. 13

Part Three: (Para. 14-20): By the way he behaved when confronted with another sad moment---the loss of his grandpa, the author shows us that he came to understand what his grandpa had taught him.

LANGUAGE WORK Confront: 1) be faced with and have to deal with E.g. The actress was confronted by large group of reporters as she left the stage door 2)force to deal with or accept the truth of; bring face to face with E.g. When the police confronted her with the evidence, she confessed she was guilty.

Touched with the laughter and tears of four generations: touched with the happiness and bitterness of four generations. The sentence implies that “…the house which had seen and/witnessed the joys and sorrows of the four generations of my family.” touch: have an effect on one’s feelings; to cause one to feel pity, sympathy, etc. E.g. His sad story so touched us that we nearly cried. * be touched with: have a certain amount of quality E.g. Her hair is touched with gray.

Well: (of liquid) flow or start to flow E.g. Blood welled (out) form the cut. She was so moved that tears welled (up, forth, out) in her eyes. Linguistic Knowledge: Homonymy: the same phonological structure possessing several unrelated senses. Polysemy : the same phonological structure possessing a set of different but related meaning.

Rest on/upon Through one’s tears: 1)lean on; to be supported by 2)(esp. of a proof, argument, etc.) be based on; be grounded on; depend on E.g. Your argument rests on a statement than cannot be proved. Through one’s tears: With tears in one’s eyes; while shedding tears Through: among or between the parts or members of E.g. I searched through my papers for the missing documents.

Stare 1) look steadily for a long time, esp. in great surprise or shock E.g. He sat staring into space, thinking deeply. 2) be very plain to see; to be obvious E.g. The lies in the report stared out at us from every paragraph. * stare off: stare away; to move one’s eyes

Whisper: 1) speak or say very quietly so that only a person cloze by can hear E.g. She whispered a warning to me and then disappeared. 2) (of the wind, etc) make a soft sound E.g. The leaves of the trees were whispering in the wind.

Before your mother was even a dream: before you mother was born / before we thought of having a daughter. Pick: 1) take what one likes or considers best, or more suitable from a group. E.g. He has been picked to head the planning committee. 2)gather; pull or break off (part of a plant) from a tree or a plant E.g. He picked some roses and gave them to his girlfriend. 3) take up or remove something separately or bit by bit using the fingers, a beak, a pointed instrument, etc. The dog picked the bone clean.

…in that place in your heart where summer is an always time. Lock it away within you Fasten it firmly in your mind; imprint it on your mind; bear it in your mind and never forget it. …in that place in your heart where summer is an always time. In that place in your heart where there is always sunlight and warmth. / which is always filled with joy and happiness. Here SUMMER is a metaphor. “Always” here is used by the Grandpa as an adjective, which revealed that he was not well-educated. *Sociolinguistic knowledge: Your accent betrays you.

QUESTIONS What is the text concerned with? What is the message of the text?

MAIN IDEA 0F TEXT 2 The Dinner Party, one of the best known short stories of Mona Gardner, takes place in India earlier last century, when India was still a colony ruled by Great Britain. At the very beginning, there is a disagreement between the colonel and a young girl as to whether women are still easy to be scared. Then a snake came into the room, the hostess, with the help of an American, escaped the danger of a possible attack by the cobra. In the story, both the man and the woman demonstrated the marvelous quality of self-control